Every guy who steps into the gym dreams of achieving that great classical V-shaped upper body that commands respect and attention. Many have trained for months, if not years and yet that V-shaped upper body just isn't forth coming. Ever wondered why?

Before I show you various ways to achieve that glorious 'V', you must also be aware that the 'V' shape is also an illusion. If you have a wide thick back with a powerful chest, coupled with boulder-like deltoids, your 'V' will show up commandingly because those attributes will make your waist look small and thus accentuating the 'V' illusion.

To have a stupendous upper body, you MUST train your lower body. V-shapes will just be an ugly upper body shape if your legs are like bamboo poles. The excellent full body shape is called the X-frame. Just like those super heroes you see in comic books. If you don't train legs, you are missing out on training the largest muscle mass. When training legs, many other upper body muscles especially the back and abs will be involved. This gives you the most muscle mass trained in one go. And because you are training so many muscles at one go, you secrete tons of growth hormones when you sleep, further enhancing overall muscle development for that perfect X-frame.

Another muscle group many people fail to pay attention to is the back. The back must be trained for thickness as well as width. Many back exercises also develop the rear deltoids and the trapezius which are very important to getting that 'V'. When your back is thick, you will look powerful and with the width, it will make your waist look narrower, thus making the 'V' more pronounced. Do bar-bell row, deadlifts for a thick and powerful back. Chin-ups and push-ups (weighted and doing them in a slow controlled motion) will provide you the width or more commonly called 'wings'.

Another very obvious V-shape illusion creator are your triceps. But most people pay more attention to the biceps

The best illusion-shapers are your deltoids. Your delts have 3 'heads'. However, most of the time, I see people only working out the front delts. When you develop your delts well, they will be round and boulder-like, and they make your shoulder wide and strong. Now, close your eyes and have a mental image of yourself with a wide thick back, big strong triceps... now, do you see that 'V'? Add lateral raise, bent-over lat-raisers and upright rows to your routine.

How to have a beautiful 'V' if your abs are flabby? Forget the side crunches and side bends. It will only make your waistline thicker. Go on a lose fat program by combining weight lifting, cardio exercises and eating correctly. Your abs will show in no time.

Ahh... to finally stamp your authority in the gym and at the beach, a wide and powerful gladiator's chest will put you ahead of the pack! Train your chest heavy with dumbbells, barbells and cables machines. Use incline benches rather than flat or declining ones. You want to build the upper chest and not targeting the lower chest in case it gets you the droop or saggy chest which we call 'bitch tits'. Although the pec is one huge muscle, it can be targeted at different places to recruit different fibres to shape it.

Chris Chew is a personal trainer and count actors, pageant winners, models and other celebrities as his clients. He runs a fitness training school in Singapore at Singapore Personal Trainers and is the author of "Burn Fat Build Muscles Fast." See his books at Lose Fat Build Muscles Quickly!

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